25 Market Place Recorder: Ruth Gibson Date of Visits: 13.9.10, 27.1.11 5.12.14 (By E.H.& Dendro Work)

VERNACULAR BUILDINGS RESEARCH HENLEY ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL GROUP Parish/County: Henley-on-Thames, Oxon Owner: Municipal Charities Leased by: Facy’s until 2011 Street and House name: 25 Market Place Recorder: Ruth Gibson Date of visits: 13.9.10, 27.1.11 5.12.14 (by E.H.& Dendro work) Listing grade and entry text: Gd II, ‘ for group value. C18th facade. Red brick with shallow pitched, slate roof. 3 storeys, 3 windows of which centre is blank. Cased frame, sashes with slightly cambered heads and glazing bars. Ground floor altered C19th shop front’ The above Listing entry is clearly wrong on many counts. English Heritage is in the process of updating this as the building’s early timber framed structure has been discovered and dated. NB On 10.12.2014 two bays of the rear range roof timbers have produced a dendro date of 1471. The entire Listing Entry has been changed accordingly by Historic England on 2.4.2015. No27 No 25 No 25 Market Place, shop front facing north, Rear ranges: single storey brick and flint brick shallow pitch and slate roof. The 1st floor central former stables or workshops. window and two top floor The tall, white gable is the 5-bay, C15th range ones are false windows. Rear roof of street range is steep and tiled. Known History: Owned by William Barnaby and left in his will to the town in 1585 for the upkeep of the bridge and the poor of the town. Documented as part of the town’s charities in 1835 (A.Cottingham p.194/198, ‘The Hostelries of Henley’ identified it as The Rose & Crown at No 27 Market Place, but the correct house number is No. 25). The ownership of No. 25 is still with the Municipal Charities, who continue to use the income from it for charitable purposes as intended by the wealthy Elizabethan donor. According to Cottingham its use as a P.H. is only documented between 1751 and c.1788; its name however, suggests that its use as an inn or public house may date from Tudor times. Its brick front, sash windows and shallow slate roof indicate alterations or rebuilding early in the C19th . This would fit an advertisement by the Town Clerk for the sale of a 33 year repairing lease in 1835, which suggests the construction of a shop front, part removal of the passageway, the digging of a cellar and the building of 2 attics. Errol Facy’s grandfather leased the building from the Municipal Charities in 1896 for £ 50 p.a. The lease of the shop ceased in 2011,that of the flat above ceased a year earlier. The ground floor shop was in use as a ladies’ fashion outlet; the first floor and attic were used as accommodation by the Facy family until recently. 1 Date of 1st map, type of plot: The 1878 1st O.S. map shows a building abutting the south side of Market Place, with carriage way on the east side. The plot runs back to the parish boundary between Henley and Rotherfield Greys and could well have been of the length of 429 feet advertised in the Particulars of 1835 (see above, A.Cottingham). Plan form/position in street: The front range consists of two bays, built parallel to the street of single pile depth with a long rear range attached at right angles. This two storey-range, consisting of 5 timber framed bays, adjoins the westernmost front bay and accommodates a first floor staircase in Bay V (see schematic plan below). These stairs and landing connect and serve both rear and front ranges, although they are of different floor levels indicating different building dates. Beyond the timber framed two storey section to the south is a single storey building, brick with some timber framing, which is part of the shop and also storage area. All other out-buildings, glass house and substantial gardens, shown on the OS map have made room for the car park. Description of the building: The principal street range is occupied by the shop front at g.f. level, which is a through shop extending into the rear wing from which all early features have been removed. The red brickwork of the wall is laid in Flemish bond with flat brick arches over the windows. There are 3 sash windows (two 8 x 8 window panes, one 4 x 4 ) at the first floor and 3 at the attic floor (4 x 4). However, the central first floor and two attic windows are false. They would have been put in simply to give the front elevation the all important symmetry of a typical Georgian façade. The front roof was raised to allow for head height in the attic. It is covered with Welsh slates. However, at the back the roof retains its original steep pitch and is clay tiled. At first floor level the false central window also shows that it was put into an earlier building, as it abuts an existing, timber framed cross wall, the latter still indicated by the uneven plaster work of the bedroom walls. The ceiling in bedroom east is c. 3 feet higher than that in b.r. west. The attic: This is reached via a landing and turned staircase inserted into part of Bay V of the rear wing, which connects the different levels of the front and rear ranges. Mr. Errol Facy recalls this staircase rising originally directly from the shop floor. West, front attic room with small cast iron bedroom fireplace, a typical Victorian, mass produced example with register plate and decorative garlands incorporated in the front face. Only the west bay of the attic has been converted into a useable bedroom; it has the only real window of the three attic ones shown externally, as well as a fireplace. The east bay is blocked off by the central truss of the original roof structure and is now only accessible through a small hatch in the wattle, daub & plaster wall. This now blocks this formerly open, arch braced truss. Most of the elements of the original roof structure of the east bay survive below the later roof timbers inserted above it, to allow for the increased height of the front brick wall. 2 New rafters new roof support Blocked window queen strut Raised front brick wall with blocked window The old roof structure retains its original trusses and all supporting the new rafters for the shallower rafters at the south/rear; those on the north/front have slate roof. Underneath are the old roof been removed, but the original purlin is still in place, timbers with one surviving wind brace supporting new timbers for the new roof above. between purlin and principal rafter The original truss (centre back) seems mostly intact with two raking queen struts between tie and collar. Central truss. Just visible is the north arch brace, which rises from the northern principal rafter to the cambered collar. There is another arch brace on the south side, but barely visible in this photograph. The front purlin is clasped (?) and its dimensions are 7” x 5”. The collar dimensions are 7” x 4”, the arch brace is 6”x 2”. Chamfers ? This was very probably an open truss, but it is not possible to see whether it has a tie beam, as the floor level of this attic space has been raised by circa three feet and the original fabric in the dividing wall below is not visible, but uneven enough to indicate timber framing. 3 Rear wing: At ground floor shop level no early features are visible; the rear wall of the front range has been removed, creating an open through shop. At first floor level four timber framed bays of between 2 m and 2,70 m length survive. The fifth bay (V on plan) houses the C19th staircase and landing and little of the original framing remains. In the 1st floor bays some of the wall posts with their jowl heads are visible supporting tie beams. Curved wind braces are visible in Bays I and II, which have high ceilings inserted at collar/wall plate levels. The dividing cross wall at Truss D, between Bays III and IV, consists of later studs replacing an earlier timber stud wall, the tenons of which can still be seen in the soffit of the tie beam. Left: Bay I, south west corner with curved wind brace. Right: Stud wall of truss D. A long raking strut is typical of C18th work, further indicating a later alteration to this dividing wall. The attic is divided into 5 timber-framed bays of irregular lengths. It has a side purlin roof with tusk tenons jointed into the principal rafters and supported by struts, collars or braces. Each of the visible trusses is of a different design, as shown below. The timbers in trusses C, D & E have been dendro dated to 1471. North side of closed Truss C Truss D with western queen post clasping Ceilings of bays 2 & 1 beyond are the purlin; also note groove in the back of this raised to collar level. There are raking post, indicating a previously closed truss wi nd braces throughout the roof. with wattles & daub infill . 4 Truss E, south side, looking north into the later inserted stair well and landing of Bay V. Truss E has two long, slightly curved braces, lap jointed to form a scissor brace, which would have created an elegant open hall roof, possibly together with the missing end truss at F.

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